


Crazy Kogane Makes Friends

by Lisa_Shadow



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Best uncle Lance, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Funny, Galra Keith (Voltron), Hurt Keith (Voltron), M/M, Police Officer Shiro (Voltron), Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Touch-Starved Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2019-06-20 11:30:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15533262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lisa_Shadow/pseuds/Lisa_Shadow
Summary: Lance looses his cousin while camping and goes to old man Kogane's shack to get help but is greeted by socially awkward Keith instead. They go on an adventure to find his cousin and when it's over Lance thinks that's the last he'll see of the odd kid. He was wrong, Keith shows up at Lance's school the next week kicking off the beginnings of a crazy friendship.





	1. Old Man Kogane

Lance had been camping with his nice, Ana, and his nephew, Cory. His brother Marco asked him to watch them for the weekend while he and his wife celebrated their anniversary in Durango. It was going great till Lance woke up in the morning to find nine year old Ana missing. He looked everywhere for her but after two hours of not finding her he dropped Cory off at his dorm with Hunk, called Marko, and rushed over to the police station where he was now. 

A tall man approached Lance, he wasn’t quite sure how old the man was as he looked young but had a tuft of white hair in the front, maybe it was died. The man introduced himself, “I’m Officer Shirogane, but you can call me Shiro. Can you tell me exactly what happened?” So Lance retold the story for what felt like the hundredth time that day, he just wanted Ana back, he didn’t even care that Marco would probably never let him see them again, he just wanted sit with her and hear stories about how terrible her 4th grade teacher is, laugh at how forgetful Marco is together, he just wanted his nice back. Shiro reached over and hug Lance allowing him to sob into his shoulder. Once Lance had calmed down a bit Shiro pulled him back and told him, “I will send out some of men to look for her and we’ll hopefully be able to find her but it’s a big desert with lots nooks and crannies to look in. It will take us a while to cover the whole area.”

Sniffling a bit Lance asked, “She’s only nine, I can’t leave her alone that long. Isn’t there anything else we can do?”

Shiro stayed silent for a long moment before leaning in and whispering, “You know where old man Koganes shack is?”

“Crazy Kogan!” Old man Kogane or as many people called him crazy Kogane had been a beloved firemen till one day 22 years ago before Lance was born he came into town raving about aliens attacking and since then people called him Crazy Kogane and would whisper about him whenever he came into town till one day he stopped coming to town and even went as far as to threaten to shoot anyone who came near his shack. Rumor has it that he went insane and murdered someone and keeps their head as a trophy in his shack. 

“Yes, he knows that desert like the back of his hand and would probably help you if you ask really nicely. I’d ask myself but he gets a little jumpy around police officers.” Shiro said with a hint of guilt crossing his face.

“Umm, okay,” Lance responded as he stood excited to finally be doing something even if it was just begging a crazy old cook to help him. 

As Lance approached the door Shiro shouted over, “Oh bring strawberries, he loves those.” 

That is how Lance found himself standing in front of the run down shack of a possible murder in the middle of the desert. He took a deep breath and and knocked on the door whispering, “For Ana,” to himself. 

After a few moments someone came and answered the door but it was not the old man with white hair and a cane Lance had been imagining but rather a boy who looked to be about Lance’s age with longish black hair sort of like a mullet, although that was not his only mistake he was wearing a black shirt and black skinny jeans in the middle of the desert. The boy, who had looked kind excited when he opened the door took one look at Lance and frowned saying, “Oh, I thought you were my Mom.” before slamming the door in Lance’s face. 

Lance stood there in silence for a minute before knocking again. The boy didn’t answer the door this time but instead just shouted, “Go away!” but this was for Ana so Lance was not going away till this jerk helped him. Lance swung the door open, which seemed to have had all five of it’s locks broken off once, creepy, there were no heads on the walls though so that was a good sign, in fact the place had more of a mad scientist vibe to it with charts lining the walls, advanced equipment scattered around the room, and a bulletin board full of pictures connected with strings, okay maybe more crazy conspiracy theorist, Katie would get a kick out of this. The boy was hunched over a desk tinkering with some sort of satellite mumbling, “Maybe the frequency is wrong, or I might need a more powerful satellite. I’ll have to message Pidge.”

Lance took a deep breath and stomped over to the desk and slammed his hand on it startling the boy. Lance looked him in the eye and said, “I need your help, Shiro sent me.” 

At that the boy jumped up, pulled a knife out and asked, “Are you a cop? I’m not leaving the desert no matter what Shiro says.” 

“No, I’m looking for my nice, Ana, she got lost while we were camping and Shiro said you might be able to help me find her.”

The boy relaxed and put his knife and began saying, “I’m sort of busy tryinnnng …” and then he trailed off as he caught sight of the box of strawberries under Lance’s arm. The boy began drooling as he asked, “Are those strawberries?” 

Lance nodded and the boy reached out to grab one. “Nope. You can only have some if you agree to help me.” Lance said as he used his long arms to hold the box out of reach.

“Finnne, I’ll help you.” The boy said as he reached for the strawberries. Lance set the box down on the desk and the boy instantly began shoving the berries in his mouth he then looked up smiling and said through a mouthful of berries, “Thank you um…”

“Name’s Lance.”

“Thank you Lance,” the boy responded before returning to eating his strawberries.

Lance stood there blinking at him, this is the part where he should say his name, right? “Um what’s your name?”

“Keith,” he responded not looking up.

“Okay… Can we start looking for Ana now?”

“Oh, right, sorry.” Keith said as he pulled out a map, “Where were you camping?”

Lance scanned the map looking for anything that looked familiar, “Um we were camping near a big rock shaped like a man with bunny ears.” 

Keith nodded, “The king. She’s probably in the lion’s den,” he said as if Lance knew exactly what he was talking about. 

“The lion’s den! Are there lions in there! What if they ate her!” 

“No I just call it that because there are lion carvings all over the walls.”

“Oh okay, don’t scare me like that.”

Keith threw a few strawberries in his his fanny pack, tucked a knife into it, and then grabbed a small pack pack “Alright let’s go.”

Lance followed him out back where he almost stepped into a large pit on the back yard, and by large he means the size of an Olympic pool. “What’s the hole for?”

“My Hippo, it’s coming later this month.” Keith replied as if that was normal as he headed to his bike.

“Suuure your hippo.” Lance responded. They reached the bike, Keith slid his backpack into it’s trunk, climbed on and patted the spot behind him for Lance. Lance took a deep breath and reminded himself for Ana as he climbed on. Keith started the bike up rather quickly causing Lance to hold on tightly to Keith. Keith initially tensed up from the contact and the bike swerved but soon Keith seemed to have melted into the contact. 

Keith road the bike quickly through the desert, launching the bike over a few rocks laughing making Lance scream and hold on tighter. After a sort while they arrived at the mouth of a cave and Keith parked the bike. They got off and Keith threw Lance a flashlight from his bag. The cave just as Keith had said was covered in drawings of a lion but Lance didn’t have time to pay attention to them. He ran through the cave shouting, “Ana!”

Keith caught up to him and grabbed his shoulder, “Stay close to me.” Lance glared at him but he quickly explained, “You can’t help her if you get lost.” That made since to Lance and as much as he wanted to run around the whole cave looking for her he let Keith lead. 

They went down several tunnels Keith taking seemingly random turns till he came to a fork and stopped. He bit his lip and looked between the two tunnels before deciding on the right one. As they started down it through the left tunnel began glowing with a light coming from the carvings. Keith took a moment to stare at the markings before looking over to Lance in awe. “The king,” he whispered before urging Lance to follow the the carvings, “Go, the blue lion is helping us.” 

Lance followed the carvings cautiously till he heard muffled sniffling and started running till he came to a cavern separating one side from the other, the cry could be heard loudly now so he shouted, “Aaaannnaaa! 

“Lance?” came a response from below him and he looked down in horror till he spotted his nice on a ledge a little ways from where he stood. Lance was about to attempt scaling side of the cliff to get to her before Keith stopped him.

“Let me get her, I climb in these caves all the time, I’ll keep her safe.” 

Lance nodded and the moved to the cliff side to shout down to Ana, “My friend Keith is going to come down to get you.” Ana looked up with tears in her eyes and tried to say something but it was too quiet to hear.

Once secured Keith propelled himself down to Ana. He approached the girl cautiously and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, “Are you hurt?” Ana nodded her head and pointed to her ankle, Keith nodded and said, “Okay I need you to climb onto my back and hold on.” Ana climbed on and held on to Keith with a death grip that was probably choking him but he just grabbed on to the rope and began climbing up as steadily as he could. This kid was seriously strong. 

They reached the top and Lance ran over to Keith to take Ana from him, “I’m so glad your okay! You are not leaving my sight till Marco gets here!” 

Ana was crying and sobbed out, “I’m sorry uncle Lance.”

“It’s okay, let’s just go home, Hunk has probably stress baked a dozen batches of cookies by now.” 

“Okay.” Lance reached his arms out for her but she gripped tighter onto Keith, “I want to stay with my knight.” 

Keith smirked over at Lance as Lance gasped, “You would rather have Keith carry then your own uncle!”

Ana giggled as she gripped tighter to Keith. They followed the markings, which were still glowing, till the emerged from the cave. They rode Keith’s bike back with Ana squished in the middle and then Keith carried her back into his shack where he set her down on his desk, “I’m going to wrap your ankle okay, also Dad always said you have to always disinfect wounds so I’ll have to clean your knees, okay.” 

Ana smiled and replied, “Okay my knight.”

Keith smiled at her as he reached into a drawer in his desk and pulled out a first aid kit, the kit was mostly empty but he pulled a bandage out that looked suspiciously dirty like it had been used and began wrapping her ankle gently but with the expertise of someone who had done it many times before. He then cleaned Ana’s knees and placed his remaining bandages over them. “Okay your all set.” 

Lance decides that this kid has actually helped them out a lot so he looks in his wallet to pay him and find a hundred and two ones so he pulls out the hundred, “Here, as a thanks for helping us.” Lance hands him the dollar. Keith takes it and just stares at it, maybe the kid had never seen a hundred before? 

“What do I do with this, is it a picture, should I frame it.”

“What? It’s a dollar, haven’t you seen one before?” Keith nodded his head no, “Oh well you buy stuff with it.”

“Like what?” 

“Well, you could buy more strawberries for starters, and then probably get a haircut.” 

“I just cut my hair!” 

“Alright well we should get going, come on Ana,” Lance said as he stretched out his arms for Ana.

“But Uncle Lance, I want to stay with my knight.”

Keith spoke up, “You can stay here if you want, I always wanted a little sister so I could teach her all my knife tricks.”

Lance laughed but he had a suspicion that Keith wasn’t entirely joking so he quickly grabbed Ana, “Yup we’re leaving now.”

“Aw Lance can’t I stay just a little longer?” Ana asked.

“See Lance, she wants to stay and learn cool knife tricks with me, can’t she stay?” Keith pleaded. 

“Nope.” Lance said as he hurried out the door and climbed into his blue slug bug. Lance called Marco and the police to tell them he found her and then took her to a hospital so she could get proper care, the nurse all praised him for doing such good first aid but they replaced the wrap and to Lance’s horror Ana asked to keep the wrap.


	2. Strawberry shoping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith needs Lance's help buying strawberries.

“You don’t understand, he was so weird.” Lance told Hunk and Katie as they walk back from practicing in the flight simulator. “After we found Ana he kept trying to adopt her or something.”

“Yeah well Ana is adorable, I want to adopt her to,” Hunk said as he shrugged.

“No, not in a joking way, like he really wanted to keep her there to be his sister.”

“Okay that’s a little creepy.”

“I know right. And then there was the thing with the money, he acted like he’d never seen a dollar bill before!”

“Well maybe he just always uses cards or something,” Hunk shrugged.   
Katie began laughing; Lance and Hunk looked over to see she was staring at her phone. Hunk leaned over her to look at her phone and asked, “Who ya texting? Your boyfriend?” Getting revenge on her for her teasing about Shay.

Between laughs Katie said, “I have this friend on the internet who, pf, is asking me how to, ha ha ha, u, ha ha, use,” and then she fell into a fit of laughter not able to finish.

“Okay then,” Hunk sighed, “Me and Katie are going to the library to work on physics, see you later Lance.” He grabbed a still laughing Katie’s shoulder and guided her towards the library mumbling, “Come on chuckles.” 

Lance waved goodbye before heading out towards their apartment. He recalled the events of yesterday before shaking his telling himself, it doesn't matter you want have to see him again. As he turned the corner someone jumped out at him grabbing his shoulders.

“Lance!” Keith shouted shaking the boy, “I need your help. How do I use this to get strawberries?” Keith asked as he pulled the Hundred dollar bill out of his pouch.

“Keith! What are you doing here?”

“I need more strawberries but Pidge won’t tell me how to use use this.”

Lance sighed wondering how he was unlucky enough to run in to Keith again. “Just go to the strawberry cart on 5th and buy some.”

Keith nodded face serious, “Okay lets go,” and with that he grabbed Lance’s hand and started dragging him down the street. 

Lance pulled his hand to get Keith’s attention, “It’s this way dummy.”

After enough wrong turns for Lance to conclude that Keith was either from out of town or severely directionaly challenged they made it to the cart. Keith simply handed the owner the dollar bill and said, “I want strawberries.”

The shop owner stared at him and then asked, “Just to clarify you want a hundred dollars worth of strawberries?”

Keith nodded expression nothing but serious, “Yes.”

Lance stepped in, “No just give him like.. 6 lbs okay.”

The owner nodded and measured out a crate with 6 lbs of strawberries in it. “Here you go.” 

Keith accepted the crate but pouted at Lance as he asked, “What am I supposed to do with this now,” as he waved his change in the air. 

“I don’t know. Is there anything else you want?” Lance looked him over, “A new jacket maybe?”

“What’s wrong with my jacket!”

“Look at it, how long have you had that thing, it’s so short.”

“It’s supposed to look like that! Just like Dad’s jacket.”

“Oh so bad fashion taste runs in the family then?”

“My dad was handsome then you will ever be!” 

“Sure,” Lance rolled his eyes, then he spotted something, “You want ice cream?”

“What’s ice cream?” 

Lance gasped, “You never had ice cream! Well come on,” and Lance dragged him into ice cream shop.

Keith was putting as they stood in line till they got to the front and his eyes lit up, “I remember this stuff now, dad would bring it home sometimes and we’d eat it while watching movies.”

Lance smiled at the look of pure delight on Keith’s face, he was pretty cute when he wasn’t being weird. They sat down at one of the tables, Lance had a cone with rocky road and Keith had a bowl of vanilla with chocolate syrup, Lance had tried talking him into something more adventurous but he didn’t even want to try the strawberry. To Lance’s horror Keith pulled his to big knife out and began cutting his strawberries up and putting them in his ice cream. “What are you doing!” 

Keith looked up and replied, “Adding strawberries, this is the best way to eat it,” as if he wasn’t cutting tiny strawberries with his dagger. Once he was done Keith took a bite of his ice cream and moaned, “I forgot how good this was. Thank you Lance.” How could Keith be this cute Lance wondered as he watched Keith’s delight, his own ice cream forgotten. After Lance had been staring for an uncomfortable amount of time Keith noticed and asked, “Did you want to try some?” He took a spoonful and held it in front of Lance’s mouth, “It’s really good.” Lance looked at the spoon then looked to Keith’s shyly smiling mouth where the spoon had just been then back to the spoon before hesitantly opening his mouth and accepting the bite. Keith was right, it was delicious. 

Once they finished their ice cream and started walking back towards Lance’s apartment Keith asked, “You want hang out tomorrow?” 

“Umm I have class tomorrow and then I have to start my Calc homework, so…”

Keith looked dejected and quietly asked, “Is school fun?” 

Had Keith never been to school, was he home schooled, maybe that’s why he’s knows so little. “School is kind of boring, but it’s fun hanging out with friends and some of the classes are fun like when I get to fly the simulator.” 

Keith hummed before admitting, “I was never allowed to go to school, Dad said it was dangerous.” 

What kind of parent doesn't want their kid to go to school? Was Keith’s dad part of a cult or something? That would explain why he was so crazy. “You are a grown up now so you can go to school if you want to.”

Keith looked at him surprised, “You think it would be okay?”

“Yeah totally.”

“Okay.”

They reached Lance’s apartment and went their separate ways, Keith heading back to where he had parked his bike. Lance realized that he didn’t have a terrible time with Keith today and was almost looking forward to seeing him again, almost.


	3. What's a girlfriend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith shows up at Lance's school.

Lance was sitting in his physics class quickly trying to finish the homework he forgot about. He heard someone sit down in the seat next to him and without looking up asked, “Hey Rolo can I copy your homework?” 

“Um… I’m not... who’s Rolo?” Lance looked up to see Keith sitting in Rolo’s usual spot fidgeting with the zipper on a new red and black backpack. 

“Hey Keith, whatchya doing here?”

Keith hugged his backpack tightly eyes fluttering around the class before he looked back to Lance and in a small voice responded, “Going to school like you said.” 

“Okay, but what are you doing in my class?”

“Well you said that the best part about school is hanging out with friends and your my only friend so I decided to just go to all your classes.” 

“Okay then,” Lance nodded and went back to his homework, there was no way Keith would understand Lance’s classes they were all second year advanced piloting classes, but he figured Keith was more there for the experience then to learn. 

Just as Lance started to get in the zone and fly through questions Keith interrupted, “Well I guess Pidge is also my friend but I don’t know what school he goes to, plus I want to go to school with you. I asked Pidge what I would need for school and he gave me a list so I went to a store, I think it was called wall-mart or something, and used the money you gave me to get the supplies. Look at how cool this backpack is! It’s red and black my favorite colors, and also look it has a secret pocket inside.”

Lance had reread the last question five times now and he still couldn’t remember what it was, there was no way he was going to finish this before class started with Keith distracting him. “I’m trying to finish this could you just be quiet,” Lance snapped. Keith instantly stopped talking and looked down at his desk pouting. Lance felt bad but he really needed to get this done, he couldn’t miss any more assignments. Just as Lance was about to return to his assignment he heard a sniff next to him and looked up; Keith was pouting and his eyes were watery. Oh no was he going to cry, did Lance make him cry? Panicking Lance reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, “Hey I just need to finish this assignment but we can talk after class okay.”

Keith looked up and, to Lance’s relief, smiled, “Okay.” Keith, while he still looked sad, no longer seemed to be in danger of crying. He took out his notebook, one definitely meant for elementary kids with the picture of a motorcycle on the cover, and began drawing. 

Lance finished his assignment just as the teacher gave the last call for collecting it. The rest of class was relatively uneventful, Lance looked over at Keith a few times and found that he was actually taking pretty thorough notes and had sketches of as engine of some kind between the notes. 

After class Lance headed to the Arus, a coffee shop on campus, where Hunk, Katie and him always met and ate there lunches. Hunk was bring food for everyone today and he was psyched. Keith trailed behind him the whole way but was oddly quiet compared to earlier. “Hey, you okay,” Lance asked bumping Keith with shoulder.

“Am I annoying?” Keith asked.

“No, I’m sorry about earlier. I just really needed to get that assignment done.” 

“So you don’t hate me?”

“No, I definitely don’t hate you, I even like spending time with you. Like you said we’re friends.”

“Oh okay!” Keith’s frown lifted into a blinding smile and he grabbed Lance’s hand, “You’re my favorite friend.” 

Lance tried to subtly pull his hand back but Keith’s grip was too tight and he looked so happy so Lance allowed it. 

When the arrived at the Arus Katie had a mischievous glint in her eyes at the sight of their hands but before she could say anything Lance gave her a look that clearly said, “say anything and I’ll eat all of Hunk’s peanut butter cookies for a week,” which convinced Katie to bite her tongue. 

“Katie, Hunk, this is Keith. Keith these are my best friends Katie and Hunk.” Lance sat down and reached for his food from Hunk but realized that Keith was still holding his hand, in fact he was pretty sure Keith was holding it tighter than before. He looked over and Keith was staring at the table trying to seem as small as possible. Lance leaned over and whispered, “It’s okay, they won’t bite,” he nudged Keith, “Why don’t you show Hunk your engine? I saw you drawing it in class and Hunk loves stuff like that.”

Keith nodded and released Lance’s hand to pull out his notebook and silently shove it in front of Hunk. Lance chuckled quietly, who knew Keith would be so shy. 

Hunk put down his fork and picked up the notebook staring at it in confusion but after a moment his eyes light up and he asked, “Did you design this?” Keith nodded shyly and Hunk asked, “What’s it for?”

“A hovering bike.” Keith whispered.

Hunk slid over a seat, “Really! This is amazing, but are you sure it will be strong enough?”

Lance smiled as he watched Hunk and Keith getting along, it was so cute. He contently sat there and watched them as he ate, at some point Katie had come over and was now sharing her own thoughts on the bike.

Once they were finished discussing the bike and Hunk and Katie returned to their seats Katie declared, “I like you Keith, we are now friends.” Keith looked like a kid on Christmas morning.

“Yeah man, you're cool, welcome to team Voltron. That's what we call ourselves,” Hunk said.

Keith jumped up from the table and shouted, “You know about Voltron!” 

“Yeah we all had to learn about it in 10th grade during history and we’ve been calling ourselves Team Voltron ever since,” Lance explained. Voltron was a team of heroes that defended the ancient city of Altea which there city was named after. The story goes that the Alteans were living in peace till the Galra came and declared war on them so to defend their city a team of five people emerged: The Blue King, the Kind and just king of Altea seeking to protect his people. The Black Paladin, a military expert and the leader of the team. The Red Knight, the King's personal guard and right hand man. The Yellow Mechanic, a backers child who wanted to bring honor to his family. And last The Green Paige, an intelligent women who seeked to save her family. 

“So you know about the legend behind the lions, and The Blue King, and the missing ruins and…” Keith rambled.

Lance saw a flash of white and was drawn away from Keith’s rant as he saw Allura approach their table. “Hey Gorgeous what brings you to our table today.”

“I work here, and I’m not coming to your table Lance, I’m going to help the paying customers,” Allura responded flipping her long hair over her shoulder. 

“Ohhhh,” Katie squealed. 

“Give it up Lance,” Hunk said giving his friend a sympathetic smile.

“She’ll come around eventually, everybody wants The Taylor,” Lance said doing his best to seem unfazed.

“Sorry but she definitely doesn't want you,” Katie said rolling her eyes.

“I don’t understand, why would she want Lance,” Keith asked.

How dare he Lance thought, he's probably never even had a girlfriend. “Your one to talk Mullet, I bet you’ve never even had a girlfriend.”

“I have a girlfriend!” Keith shouted surprising everyone, “Katie is my girlfriend.”

Katie who had been taking a sip of lemonade sprayed it all over the table, “What! No Keith, I’m just your friend.”

“But your my girl friend,” Keith said eyes going wide, “Are you a boy!”

“No! I’m a girl who is your friend but I’m not your girlfriend,” Katie tried to explain but ended up looking to Hunk for help as Lance was too busy laughing. 

“A girlfriend is someone you love and want to spend all your time with,” Hunk explained. “Have you ever felt like you wanted to spend all your time with someone,” Hunk asked and Keith nodded. “And your stomach feels funny when you see them?” Keith looked over at Lance then back at Hunk and nodded, “And you feel like you would conquer the universe for them if that's what it took.” Keith nodded one last time and Lance smiled knowing that’s how Hunk felt about Shay, he’s such a romantic. Hunk continued, “That’s how you feel about someone who is your girlfriend.”

“So Lance is my girlfriend!” Keith exclaimed. 

It was now Lance’s turn to spray his drink across the table, “What!” Hunk and Katie cackled like hyenas. 

“Yeah, Cause that's how I feel about you,” Keith said in all his innocence. 

“No no no, you're just confused because I’m your first friend,” Lance argued a blush crawling up his face.

“But that's exactly how I feel about you.”

“Once you become better friends with Hunk and Katie you will see.”

“So, if I still feel this way after i spend more time with Hunk and Katie then you’ll be my girlfriend,” Keith asked.

“We’ll see but I don’t think you will,” Lance said.

The rest of lunch was uneventful. Keith went with Lance to his last class and after they went to the strawberry cart to get more before Keith headed back to his shack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy this. The end scene was inspired by Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun.


	4. Ana Comes to Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance gets a call that Ana ran away and took a bus to his town.

Lance fell out of bed when he was awakened by his phone ringing, looking at the time it was just past noon. Still half asleep Lance answered, “Hello.”

“Lance! I called you five times! Is Ana there?”

“Um, no?”

“She’s missing and the police got footage of her boarding a bus to Altea this morning, are you sure she’s not there?”

Lance jumped out of bed and threw on his jacket, “No, I just woke up, maybe Hunk or Katie let her in.” Lance ran out of his room and found Hunk cooking and Katie typing on her laptop, “Have either of you seen Ana!”

“Uh, no? Was she coming to visit today?” Katie asked.

“”If you’d told me last night I would have made her strawberry shortcake,” Hunk responded.

“No she’s not here. I’m going to go to the bus station to see if she’s there,” Lance told Marco before throwing on his tennis shoes and running out of the house in his pajamas. 

“Okay call me if you find her, I’m headed to Altea now to meet with an officer there.” Lance hung up and drove to the bus station.

After arriving at the bus station Lance asked around to see if anyone had seen Ana, it he had no luck till he showed one of the bus drivers who told him, “Oh yeah I saw her, she said she was meeting her brother. I waited with her till a young man with a mullet drove up on a red motorcycle and picked her up.”

“Keith!” Lance thank the man and ran back to his car. He was going to kill Keith.

“Hey Marco I know where Ana is,” Lance called Marco as he drove to Keith’s shack.

“Oh thank God! We’re at Altea police station now waiting to talk to an officer Shirogane.” 

“Okay I’m going to go get her, tell Shiro that she’s with Keith. I’m going to probably lose reception now but Shiro can bring you here.” With that Lance hung up and drove through the desert like a mad man. 

He arrived at Keith’s shack and rushed in not bothering to knock. Ana was sitting on the counter reading off a tablet in her hands, “3/4 cup of sugar,” while Keith scooped sugar out of a bag and poured it into a bowl.

Lance ran up to Ana and sweeped her into a hug, “I was so scared!” tears were now rolling down his face as he pulled her back to look at her, “You may not leave mine or Marco’s sight ever again, I’m going to get a leash for you.” 

“Uncle Lance, stop,” Ana complained as Lance held her close again. “I just wanted to see my knight again.”

Lance bristled at the nickname remembering how she had taken to Keith not him. Lance turned around to look Keith, “Don’t you dare lay a hand on my niece ever again, don’t even look at he!”

Keith was startled by Lance’s harsh tone and looked down at the ground eyes filling with tears. “It’s not his fault! I asked him to come get me!” Ana shouted escaping Lance’s hold to go hug Keith. “Me and Keith are making are making strawberry shortcake and then were going to decorate his hippo’s home.” 

“We are going to go see your father and then you will be grounded for life. Now come here!” Lance tried to pry her off of Keith but she started screaming and just held on tighter.

Lance sighed not sure what to, Ana was throwing a tantrum and Keith was now full on sobbing and clutching her saying, “I just want a little sister.” 

“Fine, we can stay till the strawberry shortcake is done but after that we are leaving.”

Ana perked up pretty quickly put still pouted, “But the hippo comes tomorrow!” 

“Nope. we either leave after dessert or we leave now,” Lance said crossing his arms and doing his best to portray authority. 

“But I want to show her my hippo,” Keith said, both him and Ana giving Lance puppy dog eyes. 

Lance was weak and there were still tears in both their eyes. “We can’t stay today but how about we come back next week end?” Lance asked Ana.

Keith and Ana reluctantly agreed to the compromise and got back to work on their strawberry shortcake, though Lance was sure they were making it a little slower than necessary.

Once the cake was in the oven the three sat on Keith’s ratty old couch, Ana insisted on sitting on “Her knight’s” lap. “Why does he get to be your knight, I saved you too,” Lance asked pouting. 

“You can’t be a knight, you’re the Blue King,” Ana responded matter of factly.

Keith’s eyes lit up, “You know he’s the Blue King too!”

“Yeah the Blue Lion told me, he said that Lance was the Blue King and he’d bring his Red Knight to save me.”

Keith flushed and mumbled, “I can’t be the Red Knight, he’s good and I can’t be good.” 

Lance had no clue what they were talking about, was this a game they had made up? He didn’t really care though because he got to be the king, take that Keith. 

The strawberry shortcake was finished and while eating their food Ana and Keith danced around Lance, who sat in a chair with a paper crown on and a blanket cape, chanting, “Long live the Blue King.” That is how Shiro, Marco, and his wife Sofia found them.

“Ana!” Sofia exclaimed as she stretched out her arms for Ana to run into. 

“Shiro!” Keith shouted as he stopped his dance, “Tell Lance I can adopt Ana.”

“Keith, you can’t adopt Ana,” Shiro dead panned.

“But I always wanted a little sister and you said you would adopt me because you always wanted a little brother.”

“Keith come here,” Shiro instructed and lead Keith off to one of the corners of the house, likely to explain to him how adoption works. 

“Nice outfit, your highness,” Marco said walking over to his brother.

Lance quickly removed his crown and cape, “They wanted me to be the king.”

“I see, is that the guy who helped you find Ana last time?”

“Yup.”

“Was she lost again?”

“Not exactly, she apparently came to Altea and asked Keith to pick her from the bus station.”

Marco had a fire in his eyes as he asked, “So he picked her up and took her back to his shack!” Lance hesitantly nodded. 

With that Marco stomped across the room to where Siro and Keith were quietly arguing and punched Keith in the nose. Keith responded by throwing his own punch that sent Marco halfway across the room. Shiro held Keith back as best he could but Marco stocked back over to them and flipped Keith over his shoulder. Keith pulled Marco down with him though resulting in the two brawling across the floor. 

Sofia shielded Ana from the fight while Lance and Shiro stepped in to try and break the two up. Lance gabbed Marco while Shiro grabbed Keith. Marco was shouting, “Don’t you ever touch my daughter again,” as the two were dragged apart. This seemed to cause a new wave of anger in Keith as he broke free from Shiro’s hold to throw one last punch. Marco had good reflexes though and ducked causing Keith’s punch to hit Lance in the jaw. 

All the fight in Keith instantly dissipated and he started repeatedly apologizing to Lance. He dragged Lance over to the couch and sat him down before running back to the kitchen and returning with the first aid kit and an ice pack. “I’m so sorry Lance. Here hold this on your jaw.” He placed the ice pack on Lance’s jaw and once Lance had taken hold of it he began digging around in the first aid kit. He pulled out two tablets, “Here, this will help.”

Lance stared at the red and blue tablets, “I don’t know what this is.”

Keith pulled out the bottle and read it, “It’s Acetaminophen.” 

Lance stared at him, he still didn’t know what that was. Marco put a hand on his, “It’s Tylenol.” he then looked to Keith and asked, “Why don’t you get him some water?” Keith nodded and ran back to the kitchen. “Sorry about your face.”

Lance took a deep breath before saying, “It’s fine,” then he looked back to Keith smiling and said, “He’s not a bad person you know, he’s just doesn't always understand social norms.”

“Yeah, I’m starting to see that,” Marco laughed as he watched Keith wash one of his two glasses. “So is he your boyfriend? ‘Cuse I’m not judging if he is, I guess he is a little cute in a weird way.” 

Lance’s whole face grew hot, “Ew no way. We’re just friends.”

“Does he know that because he looks at you like you’re his whole world.”

“Yeah I was just his first friend, he’ll understand once he makes a few more friends.”

“Sure,” Marco said rolling his eyes as he stood up. Keith returned with the water and began doting on Lance again. 

Shiro explained to the McClains that Keith hadn’t grown up around a lot of people and just didn’t understand you need a parent’s permission to take a child anywhere and then assured them that he made sure Keith understood and it would not happen again. Lance handed out cake to everyone as Keith and Marco got patched up. When it was time to leave Ana insisted on hugging Keith goodbye and Lance heard him whisper, “Shiro says you can’t be my sister but I’ll figure out a way.”


	5. The hippo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance meets Keith's new hippo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So i'm back but i'm not going to finish this. I just found this buried in my google drive and figured I'd post one last chapter since I already had it written. so I guess this is the end.

It was Tuesday, Keith had followed Lance to class all last week but didn’t show up to any on Monday. Lance was in his last Tuesday class wondering where Keith was instead of paying attention. Maybe he realized how boring school really is after a week. Maybe he realized Hunk and Katie were better company so he went with them instead. Maybe he got trapped in some cave or canyon somewhere. Now Lance was worried, he should really get Keith’s phone number. Did he even have a phone? The professor finally announced the end of class and Lance bolted. He decided he was going to visit Keith at his shack, or would that be rude? Who was Lance kidding, Keith had no understanding of social norms he’d probably just think it’s normal. 

Lance started heading towards his dorm when someone grabbed his arm. Lance turned around to find Keith clutching his arm with the biggest smile on his face. “I got the hippo! Her name is Yorak!” Keith shouted jumping up and down.

Lance took a deep breath and asked, “You got actually got a hippo, and you named it Yorak!”

“Yes!” Keith answered unfazed. 

“Why? You could have named it...”

“Her.”

“Her anything. What about… well I don’t know any good hippo names but something better than Yorak.”

“Yorak is a perfectly good name, that’s what my mom wanted to name me but my dad said Keith was better so now it’s just my middle name.”

Lance broke into a fit of laughter at that, “Your middle name is Yorak! Is that even a real name?”

Keith pouted and punched the cackling boy’s arm, “It’s unique, I bet your name is something boring like John”

“What my middle name isn’t boring!”

“Really, what is it then?”

“You know what!” Lance took a deep breath to try and calm himself as Keith smirked at him. “Didn’t you come here for something?”

“Oh yeah! I was going to ask you if you wanted to come see Yorak and also I need your notes for the days I missed because I just finished getting caught up and I can’t fall behind already.”

“How are you caught up already? We had finished half the semester before you started.” 

“Umm…” Keith just shrugged his shoulders. “Anyway come on my bike is over here.” Lance found himself being pulled through some bushes, down an alley and across some poor lady’s garden, he made a note to apologize for it later, before they reached Keith bike. 

Once they arrived at the shack Keith pulled Lance out back not even giving him a chance to set his bag down. “There is Yorak, My King,” Keith said gesturing to his pit as he bowed. 

Lance looked past Keith to see the pit; it now was filled with muddy water with a large flat rock breaking the surface which backed up to a small sandy beach. But there was distinctly no hippo. “Where’s the hippo?”

Keith spun around in a panic, scanning the pool, but relaxed a second later, “She’s right there, sitting in the shade of the rock.”

Lance squinted at the rock and just barely caught a glimpse of a tiny snout peeking out. “She’s so small!”

Keith looked down at the ground, “Yeah she’s a little older than two. Her mother died and they were going to sell her to some rich guy named Lotor but Pidge helped me steal her.”

“Wait you stole a Hippo from Lotor, as in Lotor son of Zarkon mayor of the town!”

“Yes. Now come on.” Keith grabbed Lance’s hand and dragged him towards the pit. 

“Wait where are we going.”

“To introduce you two.” Keith started climbing down a ladder.

“Wait aren’t Hippos dangerous! Come back up here!” Keith continued down.

“It’s fine just come down here.”

“Nope! You could not pay me to get my arm bitten off by a Hippo!”

“Whatever you just wait up there then.” Keith continued down into the hole and waded around the edge of the pit till he was in front of the Hippo.

“Come back up here right now.” Lance said in his most authoritative voice but it still betrayed his fear. Keith continued on anyway though. He reached the Hippo and stretched out his hand to rest on the snout as Lance held his breath. The Hippo opened her mouth and Lace was about to scream but she just made a cute little noise and nudged Keith with her snout. Keith in return hugged her and rubbed between her ears.

“How are you today yorak? You want to meet my friend?” Keith pointed up to Lance and looked back at Yorak, “That’s my girlfriend Lance, he’s the coolest person you will ever meet.”

“I’m not your girlfriend!”

Keith covered the Hippo’s ears before shouting back, “Don’t lie to Yorak! Now say hello, you’re being rude!” 

Lance grumbled out a “Hello Yorak.”

Keith stayed in the pit playing with Yorak for several hours while Lance watched closely from the top in case Keith gotten eaten, not because the two were adorable together.

**Author's Note:**

> Lance is the uncle of the year! Also poor Keith knows nothing.


End file.
